Steve Roach

A longstanding leader in contemporary electronic music, composer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Roach drew on the beauty and power of the Earth's landscapes to create lush, meditative soundscapes influential on the emergence of ambient and trance. Born in California in 1955, Roach -- inspired by the music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Vangelis -- taught himself to play synthesizer at the age of 20. Debuting in 1982 with the album Now, his early work was quite reminiscent of his inspirations, but with 1984's Structures from Silence, his music began taking enormous strides. The album's expansive and mysterious atmosphere was partly inspired by the natural beauty of the southwestern U.S. Subsequent works, including 1986's three-volume Quiet Music series honed Roach's approach, his dense, swirling textures and hypnotic rhythms akin to environmental sound sculptures.

In 1988, inspired by the Peter Weir film The Last Wave, Roach journeyed to the Australian outback, with field recordings of aboriginal life inspiring his acknowledged masterpiece, the double-album Dreamtime Return. A year later, he teamed with percussionist Michael Shrieve and guitarist David Torn for The Leaving Time, an experiment in ambient jazz. After relocating to the desert outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, Roach established his own recording studio, Timeroom. In the years to follow, he grew increasingly prolific, creating both as a solo artist and in tandem with acts including Robert Rich, Michael Stearns, Jorge Reyes, and Kevin Braheny -- in all, he recorded close to two-dozen major works in the '90s alone, all of them located at different points on the space-time continuum separating modern technology and primitive music.

His album roster from that decade includes Strata (1991), Artifacts (1994), Well of Souls (1995), Amplexus (1997), and Dust to Dust (1998). Early Man was released on Projekt in early 2001, followed by one of his many collaborations with Vidna Obmana, Innerzone. Throughout the remainder of the 2000s, Roach remained extremely prolific. His release schedule included the Projekt titles Trance Spirits (with Jeffrey Fayman) and the quadruple-disc Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces, Spirit Dome and Somewhere Else (with Obmana), Fever Dreams, Mantram, and Nada Terma (with Byron Metcalf and Mark Seelig), and the ongoing Immersion series, Arc of Passion, and Stream of Thought (with Erik Wøllo). He also self-released several titles on his own through Timeroom Editions. Over the next decade, Roach would show no signs of slowing as he continued with a non-stop slew of new material under his own name, as well as collaborations and soundtrack work. Though new volumes of work appeared at a clip of more than three albums per year, standouts included more collaborations with Byron Metcalf, 2013's Future Flows, 2014's disparate releases of arid road trip music on The Desert Collection and ambient explorations of mortality and humanity on The Delicate Forever. Roach began constructing an extensive analog modular synthesizer system in 2014, and in 2015, the album Skeleton Keys was composed entirely using this setup. In 2016, Roach released two full-lengths with Robert Logan (the more rhythmic Biosonic and the serene drone album Second Nature), as well as solo efforts This Place to Be and Shadow of Time. ~ Jason Ankeny

This recording is hypnotic, surreal at times, but always beautiful Put in on, either headphones, or simply filling up your ambient space will be sufficient, and be prepared to be taken away; and you may not return quite the same. Mr. Roach is one of the pioneering masters of this genre, and for good reason: he know's what he is doing! Thank you, Steve! Dr. Of Style

I have listened to many of the pioneers of electronic ambient and tribal ambient but I did not find the music and sound that truly reflected the pure creativity I was looking for until I listened to the music of Steve Roach. His music and sound reaches deeper into to the core spirit of the pure creative. No other artist has I know of has come this close to the timeless realm.

6 months ago

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philippepeluso

bought the Dreamtime Return album, and I fall asleep with it, it has such a dramatic presence - especially the tune: Looking for Safety

Been listen doing breathwork to his music at time takes you to some real scary places and places that are beyond words upper chakras he is an original and a pioneer in this genre of sound architecture a master blaster

I wish I could express the feelings I have when listening to his music but at the same time I feel not being able to is what makes his music so amazing and unique. I love his music. In the simplest terms it brings me peace.

Can anyone help me with the name of a dark ambient track that frequently played on Soundscape radio in 2003. It carried the sound of a cascading electric harpsichord with a ghostly harmonica in the background. I think it was a 5 to 7 minute track. Much appreciate any input, thanks!

These masterpieces were created 30 years ago. The music is ageless and enduring. If I did not know the artist was Steve Roach I would say this is a superlative artist that I hope to be following in the years to come. Thank you Pandora

As I listen to Steve Roach’s music I sense the magnificent vastness of external realms unexplored and then I feel strong internal feelings created by this experience. It’s like hearing echoes of infinity.

Being Receptive & Amenable becoming ever-increasingly open to the Higher Power - prayer is an essential component in making an alliance w/ God, a re-birth to a new and supernatural life. Meditation in the spirit w/ a feeling of relative peace emanating from the depths and coming into being w/ fullness, w/ a spiritual force burgeoning, becoming imminent, forthcoming. We are all children of God – needing to enter in God’s plan. We have to be an integral part of God’s divine plan to return to Him.

We’re not ever alone, the Holy Spirit is always there for us which must first be awakened in us. Change of heart, therefore, is change of life. The Essence, Presence, of course goes beyond the surface personality (persona, Lat.), i.e., the façade that masks who we, essentially, truly are at the depths, the core of our being. ‘ These laws and principles form a fundamental code for our life in the New Age. They ring out a note of our higher possibilities…’ - (Meditative Group for the New Age)

As Dr. Deepak Chopra, leader in alternative & integrative medicine, and Eckhart Tolle, spiritual teacher and philosopher, sagaciously pronounce, if you could live in the present moment - not in the past or the future - you would see the flavor of eternity; and when one metabolizes the experience of eternity, our body doesn't age.

This, ultimately, is the goal, the greatest Good, summum bonum / desiderata, to strive for as in self-creation, in renewing & atoning the self (at-onement, the exemplification of man’s unity w/ God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love) by transcending the ego transpersonally: So that well-being may become internalized and 'dis-ease' gradually displaced from our being w/ the Divine spirit working in us on the continuum from unhealthy to healthy...

How deep is the well that he endlessly draws these immensely emotional soundscapes? The gods have blessed humanity with him and given him a vision beyond mere mortals, and a tireless passion to share it. He is the Master Shaman of Spiritual Music.

How deep is the well that he continues to draws these immensely emotional soundscapes? The gods have blessed humanity with him and given him a vision beyond normal mortals, and a tireless passion to share it.

In deep, total contemplation the voice of God will be heard at the holiest of shrines, as at the tabernacle or pyx, where holy objects as the consecrated Host or Eucharist are stored, w/ the spiritual Presence of God. Amen.

Transubstantiation is communion w/ His spirit which is sanctified by the union of Christ-consciousness in a holy alliance of the transcendental w/ the terrestrial, the Divine w/ the human.

Steve Roach’s work is the embodiment of an ageless sound that touches the innermost feelings of the soul. It is the primal passion that drives one from the unknown to the known. The courage to walk through the porthole of the unknown.